On Sunday the Polish squad overcame Japan 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26) in the team’s opening match at the Paris 2024 Games.
In their first match at the Games in 16 years, as their last performance was back in Beijing 2008, the Poles collected 7.46 FIVB World Ranking points, passing Türkiye and rising to third place.
Poland’s main scores in the match were middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk, with 20 points, and Magdalena Stysiak, gaining 18 for the team.
"It was very emotional, we were waiting for this match for so long and when we heard our national anthem, it was like a dream come true," said outside hitter Natalia Medrzyk, as cited by thevolleyballworld.com.
"We are taller, but they are excellent defenders and we needed a lot of patience against them to understand that we would rarely score in our first attempt and that we'd need to find solutions to put the ball down. I think our blocking was excellent too. It's great that we got to start with a win and we'll try to get more," she added.
Stronger at the net, the Polish team outscored the Japanese in blocks 14 to 4. On the other hand, their opponents had 66 kills to their 55 and 5 aces to their 3.
Poland has now a few days to prepare for the next match at the Paris 2024 Games as it will face Kenya on Wednesday, at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
(aj)
SOURCE: IAR, thevolleyballworld.com
